The Mays garage

The Raymond Mays garage

1956 - 2005

Photographed in 1952
The new garage premises in 1952

After the end of the 1939-45 war, Raymond Mays started selling top of the range cars such as Rolls Royce and Bentley and later on acquired a Ford dealership which became the mainstay of the business while "Raymond Mays Converted" Ford models competed in the early saloon car races.

The company was known as Raymond Mays and Partners Ltd, specialising in high speed tuning, car and motor cycle sales and repairs, and a main showroom with workshops at the rear was built in Spalding Road, opposite the BRM workshops, and opened in 1952 with Henry Coy as manager. In later years, he was to prove a devoted friend and supporter in Raymond's final years, visiting him every evening when he was living alone at Eastgate House where he died in 1980.

After his death, the garage was sold and continued in private ownership until the autumn of 2005 when it was forced to close down because of pressure from other outlets and so after 50 years in business, the last commercial link with the name Raymond Mays was severed. After that, the garage premises stood empty and derelict while the owners, Anglia Regional Co-operative Society, finalised plans to include the land in a massive housing development coupled with its own Rainbow supermarket site in nearby Manning Road which was vacated in 2010.

On Friday 29th April 2011, vandals broke in and set fire to the premises, causing severe damage to the roof and the main Spalding road was closed for three hours while firemen tackled the blaze. A spokesman said that those responsible for the arson attack could have put lives at risk because the incident tied up appliances from Bourne, Market Deeping, Billingborough and Grantham, which would have meant a delay if there had been an emergency call from elsewhere during this time.

Then, early in 2012, it was announced that work was due to start on site in the spring and in March, work began on demolishing the old garage premises.

Raymond Mays (right) with Henry Coy who was became the first manager of the garage business in Spalding Road and was appointed managing director in August 1974. Coy was a devoted friend, and in his closing years, visited Mays every evening at his home at Eastgate House until he died there in January 1980.

Henry Coy with Raymond Mays

Exhibition logo

THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE GARAGE
June 1952

Photographed in June 1952

The garage was opened in the summer of 1952, the year of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and a week long open house was staged from June 15th until June 20th as part of the town's celebrations with many attractions including an exhibition of the BRM, competitions and driving tests, displays and demonstrations, film shows and a full range of Ford vehicles on show. The event was held under the title "Ford of Dagenham comes to Bourne" and was officially opened by characters from the popular BBC Radio series The Archers (Mr Archer and Walter Gabriel) and attended by directors and officials from the Ford factory at Dagenham in Essex.

REVISED MARCH 2012